Severance
by waterhands20
Summary: Reality isn't all it's cracked up to be...
1. Amnesia

**Severance  
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**I had this idea in my head for a couple of weeks, but was too lazy to write it down. Finally got over it and typed it all up for you guys.**

**Heads up, things are about to get a bit…strange.**

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><p><em>It's been eight years since Fire Lord Ozai hatched his diabolical plan to destroy the great city of Ba Sing Se, eight years since he and the Avatar faced each other in a fierce battle that determined the fate of the entire free world, and eight years since the once proud Fire Lord fell onto the Savior's feet in defeat. The deliverer defeated the conqueror, and the world fell into an era of peace…<em>

Morning had risen over the vast tundra that was the South Pole. The morning sun was warmer than usual, so warm that drips of water fell from melting icicles formed on the roof edges of every igloo. The air was dryer than the norm, and the once frigid temperatures the Pole was known for was slowly diminishing due to the spontaneous change in climate. However; the small signs of change hasn't disrupted the cycle of nature just yet, and the natives of the South Pole, both man and beast, continued their usual routine despite the looming crisis. Tiger and turtle seals howled over the horizon, penguins squawked as they ventured on their normal travel, and the men of the Southern Water Tribe hunted for their family's next meal; yes everything was normal for the time being. Nonetheless; the members of the Tribe were well aware that the delicate balance of nature was slowly tipping, and although everyone carried on with their lives as though everything were normal, they were also aware that their inevitable migration to available food and stable shelter was imminent.

Meanwhile in a small igloo on the Tribe's outermost edge, a young water bender was just waking from her deep slumber; her face contorting with a yawn as she stretched her tight limbs and rose from her bed. But her moment of serenity soon ended as a sharp pain drilled its way into her brain, forcing her to grunt from the sudden force.

"_Uuuuuuhhhh, why do I feel as if I've been hit with a sledgehammer?"_ she groaned as she observed what little she could analyze of her surroundings,_ "And what the heck am I doing in here?" _

Her ice blues glistening with stinging tears and exhaustion; she immediately became aware of her blurred vision, and without being able to tell apart anything in front of her, she began to feel panicky. As her heart started pounding in her chest, she tried recalling the events of the previous day to see if the answer to her strange symptoms lied within her memories, but realized she couldn't remember a thing beyond this very moment. Gripping her head, she tried to recollect the days before that, and the days before that, but not one single recollection of any sort managed to surface from within the depths of her mind.

"_What the…why can't I remember anything?"_

Her sight still foggy, she pressed her eyelids and rubbed her balled fists over them so as to remove the accumulated moisture. Her long, dark tresses a tangled mess and her fingertips wrinkled from moisture, she wondered what exactly was going on with her mind and why she couldn't remember any recent events, but she was soon distracted from her mental quarrel, for as she placed her clammy fingers onto her body, she noticed that she was completely nude.

"_Huh? w-why am I naked? And when did I get so, 'big'?" _she thought to herself; furrowing her eyebrows as her deep ocean blues squint with suspicion.

She went to pull her bedcover so as to cover her nudity, but found that something was restricting her from doing so, something big.

She grunted as she struggled to pull the bed sheet over her, _Ugh, stupid blanket, must be caught on something; a loose spring or something…" _muttered the disgruntled water bender; her hands still tightly gripped on her bedspread.

She sat there for several moments; still pulling and pulling until she finally realized that she wasn't making any progress. Finally, she had lost her patience, and with a charged expression in her hazy eyes, she went to reach for the obstruction that was holding her bedspread. But when she stretched her hand to the other side of the bed, she found that the object pinning her blanket down was not an object at all…but a man.

A gasping shriek escaped her lips before she pressed her hands over her lips and frantically crawled away from the unknown figure, shocked and mortified that some strange man was sleeping in her bed. Her heart had accelerated to unfathomable speeds, and her breathing became shallow; all while her bulging eyes remained fixed on the indistinguishable man lying on her bed. She couldn't tell who the man was or why he was laying on her bed in the first place, but she wasn't about ready to stick around and find out.

Just as she was about to raise herself from the bed and tiptoe her way out, she found herself tumbling onto the cold, hard floor before she landed with a loud thud…and suddenly realizing that she didn't have clothes on. Sprawled on the ground, she began to feel stupid for even thinking about running out of her home in nothing but her birthday suit, but she put those thoughts aside as she managed to gain her balance and chafed her knees over the ground; desperately scrambling the icy floor for anything she can place over herself despite being unable to tell anything apart. Conveniently, she found something lying on the floor, and she desperately reached for the item that resembled to be a drape, hanging over what she assumed to be a small stool.

"_I have no idea what's going on, but I need to get out of here and find some help; Sokka, Aang, anyone!"_ she thought hysterically to herself as she swaddled the drape over her body.

Quietly, she rose from her kneel and jogged towards the entrance and opened the door; her toes numb from the cold as the light draft that came into the home seeped through her cover, forcing her body to shiver as she gnashed her teeth from the uncomfortable chill.

But just as she was about to head out, she heard a voice.

"_Katara?"_

The young water bender shrieked as a wave of terror radiated from the tip of her head to the soles of her feet; jolting her head up as the loose strands of hair tickled her brow. The call of her name still echoed in the vast emptiness of her mind, and nearly scared to death, she let the door go before she shakily turned around to meet the person who commanded her attention.

The man that she found lying on her bed rose from his slumber, while Katara stared blankly at the blurred figure in disbelief and fear, but that voice…that voice sounded so familiar to her…

The man was just getting ready to rise from the bed; his indistinguishable body still struck with exhaustion, _"MmmKatara…where are you going?"_ said the wobbly figure tiredly, _"And why are you wearing that? Were you heading off somewhere?"_

Katara didn't know what to say or do; it was as if she were frozen in her spot, left to wonder how this man knew her name as she stared stubbornly at the man whose face she could not distinguish.

The blurred figure rose from the bed; she easily distinguished that he too was completely naked, giving that the entire figure was one solid color with the exception of the slightly darker area between his legs.

Katara gasped at the sight, _"Wait a minute, he's naked too? We were both naked? Bu-but that means…we… *gasp*, Oh no, oh no oh no oh no please Spirits for the love of all that is good PLEASE don't tell me I lost my virginity to this man! I'm too young to be having sex! Or perhaps, perhaps he 'had his way with me'? AGAINST MY WILL!"_ the young water bender whimpered in her thoughts as horror blanketed her expression.

The man stood his ground; _"Katara, mmit's me." _answered the man.

The young water bender scowled at the man; her widened eyes focused on that blur,_ "Me?" _she whispered bafflingly, "Who-who…the HECK IS ME? What _are_ _YOU_ DOING IN _MY_ BED?" she screamed as she pointed towards the man while struggling to hold the drape over her body.

The man stood in silence for a moment; then a sweet chuckle escaped his lips.

"What are you talking about?" he asked cheerfully, yet just as baffled as she was.

"YOUWEREINMYBED- YOU, YOU'RE, YOU _WERE_…" she hesitated a moment; her finger trembling as she weakly pointed towards the stranger that stood before her.

He didn't utter a single word for a few moments; he simply stood in his position quietly as if analyzing her from where he sat. And still like a long smudge in the woman's eyes, he rose from the bed and began to walk towards the disturbed, young woman.

"_Katara…what's the matter with you?"_ he asked, his humor now completely dissipated from his tone of voice.

The young water bender was beginning to heave with fear, and sweat started to trickle down her flushed skin as her eyes fixed on the moving figure, _"Oh no, he's probably going to try something on me!"_ she thought to herself before she bent some of the icy wall and formed it into sharp crystals, readily aiming at the man.

"_Wh-who-who are you! Don't come any closer! I-I WILL BE FORCED TO ATTACK IF I FEEL THE NEED TO DEFEND MYSELF!"_ she bellowed as she raised her hand defensively and slowly backed away from the approaching man; her chest rising with ever exacerbated breath she took while her limbs trembled uncontrollably.

But the blur that was the man continued his steady pace towards her until finally, he reached her side. The young water bender remained motionless; nothing could describe the terror that was pulsating inside her gut, yet she found the strength to attack him, and with one chopping swoop of her hand and an intense look in her eyes, the sharp crystals that hovered in the air launched like darts directly towards his face.

But just as the crystals were about to make contact with his flesh, he put his hand over his face; stopping the crystals from their potentially deadly approach as they froze in midair.

She was speechless; only able to look on with awe as she saw the small, solid blurs that were her crystals seemingly liquefy and splash onto the ground, her mouth slightly gaped as she turned her attention back to the stranger in front of her. Tears flowing from her glossy ice blues, she knew this man had won and now, now he was going to do the unthinkable to her; yet as petrified as the young water bender was of the seemingly hopeless situation, she wanted to know just how the heck he was able to stop her attack, but as she parted her lips to speak her question, she noticed something rather odd about him. Straining her eyes so as to get a more 'even' look at him, she noticed that the man wasn't just all one solid blur, but had a different value coated on his flesh as well; dark colored streaks that trailed his legs, arms, and finally…his head.

"_Katara…"_ he answered with concern, "_It's me, Aang_…_your husband_..."

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><p><strong>I don't know whether or not I'll continue this, but I would like to as I have the entire plot already planned in my head. Eh, we'll see...<strong>

***I must add, this is NOT an extension of my other story, 'I Need To Find Myself'. It's a completely different plot*  
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	2. We're what?

**Severance**

**I decided to continue this story for all of you. Enjoy :3  
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><p>Did she hear right? Is this disturbed lunatic really claiming to be the young Air bender she knew and cared so much for? Nothing could describe the dismal feeling the young water bender felt when she heard those words, and began to wonder if her hearing was out of whack just as her vision was at the moment.<p>

"_Aang? My…husband?" _she said horrifyingly as she stared at the blur before her, "Who _are_ YOU TRYING TO FOOL, _you_ WEIRDO? YOU CAN'T BE AANG; HE'S STILL A KID! And your not-so-clever disguise? Heh, I bet you slathered paint all over your arms, legs and head to trick me into _thinking_ that you're him, but your deep voice isn't exactly helping out your façade, you _SICK PERVERT_!" she yelled frightfully as warm tears rolled down her cheeks.

The man reached for the water bender, but hesitated to touch her, "Katara, it really _is_ me, Aang." answered the young Avatar.

Although his voice seemed deeper in pitch, the young water bender was able to recognize that unique tone in his voice the young boy was known for, that sweet and soft strength in his voice which was unique from every other person she's ever met in her life. Her icy blues widened as she came to the realization that this guy really _was_ Aang…

"_Aang?"_ she said bogglingly as she felt her grip on her sheets loosen, her eyes still glued on that blur of a figure standing in front of her, _"Oh my gosh Aang, I-I, I really thought that, that you weren't, but you are, well WHY do you sound like this? Do you have a cold or something?_ When did you grow so _tall_? And why are we both _NAKED_?" asked Katara in astonishment as she dug her fingers into her messy tresses and scrubbed her head; her other hand tightly gripped on the drape that covered her nudity as she tried to figure out just what the heck was going on.

The young Avatar sighed frustratingly, "Katara…you're acting very strange, please…tell me what's happened to you." he smoothly pleaded.

But Katara was still taking in those words Aang said to her just moments ago as she rested her back on the frigid wall and slid down to the floor, _"M-m-married?"_ she whispered skeptically; too preoccupied in her thoughts to acknowledge the sharp cold that made contact with her back.

The young Avatar observed as his woman placed her fingernails into her mouth and began to chomp down dramatically like a ravenous wolf-bat eating its prey; her alarm and confusion still apparent in her eyes.

"You're my _wife?_" he said sarcastically before a small chuckle passed his lips, "Why are you being so odd today?" he asked kindly as he knelt down to her level and rested his arms on his upright knee.

Katara however, refused to believe it, and found herself squirming away from the man, "Ok, _FIRST_ of all, I am no one's wife; I'm wayyyy too young to be thinking about marriage, Alright? And secondly, 'Aang', you're too young to married too, so QUIT _playing these messed up_ GAMES WITH ME; this is NO TIME TO JOKE AROUND!" she exclaimed tearfully as her hands started to quiver, and once again she found her chest tighten, and her breathing more strenuous.

The young Avatar noticed her distress and lifted his hand in defense, sluggishly backing away from her as he tried to salvage the situation, "O-ok Katara, just caaalm dooown, I'm not going to hurt you, just breeeaaathe Katara, _breathe_." he said soothingly, yet his alarm apparent in his words.

Calm down? That was the last thing she wanted to do at the moment; heck, she was just about ready to run butt-naked into the snow and scream her lungs out for help. However, she knew there was no sense in acting like a wild hog-monkey in front of her old friend; she wanted to get to the bottom of this whole drama and find out the reason as to why he was sounding so deranged. Forcefully, she took one deep breath from her nose, then exhaled loudly through her mouth; taking some of her accumulated stress along with it as she brushed loose strands of hair from her face with her cold fingers.

"_Hah…hah…ok…"_ she responded.

"You calm?" he asked.

Katara's breathing soon regulated, and the slight tremble of her hands subsided, "Y-y-yeah…" she answered dubiously.

The young Avatar sighed in relief as he gripped his hands together, "_Ok, good…_now tell me, what's going on with you?" he asked calmly.

Just as Aang thought he was making progress in communicating with Katara, her restlessness soon crept to the surface as she curled her fingers and toes tensely, and her expression flooded with irk, "What's going on with me? What's going on…WITH ME! WHAT'S GOING ON WITH YOU! Aang…we shouldn't be here; t-this, all of this, Ozai…oh, oh Spirits I-I…should be with the Earth King a-and you, what are you doing here? You should be on your way to visit the Guru!" she cried out.

Now Aang was really confused; unable to process why his wife was speaking all of this nonsense as he gripped the roof of his nose. Gradually, he found his tolerance for her unexplainable outbursts weakening, "Katara…what the HECK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" he exclaimed as he gazed uneasily at the nervous woman.

"THE INVASION AANG! Or did you forget about that! The fate of the world lied in your hands as well as mine, but instead, you chose to _DRAG_ me home and SPIT THIS _LIE_ AT ME AS AN _EXCUSE_? Is _THIS_ how you're choosing to _protect me_? And where's Sokka! Is he on this too! Ahhhh _SHOOT_! This is NO TIME FOR SPECULATION, w-we need to prepare for the INVASION-_AAAAAANG_, OR MILLIONS OF PEOPLE ARE GOING TO DIE!" she screamed in desperation as her eyes nearly popped out of their own sockets.

Aang chuckled scornfully at her nonsensical rant; placing his hand on his hip as he trailed the other from his head down to his face, "Ok Katara ok, if THIS is _YOUR_ idea of a _JOKE_, THEN LET ME ENLIGHTEN YOU WITH THIS FACT NOW, IT'S _NOT_ FUNNY!" he shouted viciously as he pointed his finger accursedly at the woman in front of him.

A slight gape forced Katara's lips to part as her eyebrows bent with sadness; although she couldn't personally see his rising anger, that intimidating shout was enough for young water bender to take his demand seriously, "I'm sorry Aang…" she whispered apologetically as she concealed her face into her open palms, "I'm not trying to be funny, I'm really not; i-it's just that…w-we shouldn't be here right now, we should be preparing for the u-upcoming invasion Aang. D-Does the Earth King even know that I left? And h-how did you manage to bring me here without my knowing? Was I sleeping or something when you abducted me?" she sobbed.

Now the young Avatar was beginning to get very creeped out, "What? Abducted?" he asked; extremely baffled by what his wife was saying, "I didn't abduct you, and WHAT invaaasion are you talking about Katara?" he quoted.

"You mean to tell me that you don't remember the plan? Aang, We NEED to prepare alongside the Earth King's militia so that we can get things rolling." she answered as she rolled her finger in the air.

Aang glared at the woman questionably; his eyelids nearly pressed together as he struggled to contemplate just what in Spirit's name she was talking about. Then it hit him…

"_Wait a minute."_ said the young Avatar, "Earth King? Invasion? A-Are, _are you referring to the day of Black Sun?_" he asked reluctantly, praying to the Most High Spirits that the sudden suspicion that dawned on him was wrong as he fearfully waited for her answer.

The young water bender rubbed her bare arms simultaneously; biting her lips so as to prevent herself from tearing once again, "_Of course Aang!_ What else could I _possibly_ be talking about? It's only a couple of months away and we need to prepare for it. You _know_ this is our one shot at stopping Fire Lord Ozai before the comet arrives." she pleaded, "Did you master the Avatar state already? Because if you did, then there's no time to waste; we'll head back to Ba Sing Se, help King Kuei and the Earth Kingdom military plan our surprise attack, and forget this whole thing ever happened." suggested Katara.

The young Avatar looked at her in a daze; those stone grays now widened with fear, _"She's serious..."_ he thought as he stared worryingly at his wife.

"Y-you're supposed to have complete control of the Avatar state by now, and Sokka stays with dad while I remain alongside the Earth King and supervise the plan; how did you manage to put all of this preparation aside Aang?" asked the distraught woman, "I mean, I know you're scared_; I'm scared too_, but taking spontaneous breaks like this is only hurting our mission; we _can't_ afford to do this again. We need to be ready; we all need to be prepared for this _be-fore_ the day of Black Sun and make sure this war _ends_ before Sozin's comet arrives." she answered earnestly as she gripped the young Avatar's hands, "And please Aang…put your clothes on, you're kind of freaking me out standing there in all your naked glory." she suggested with a light chuckle.

Aang gulped as his flabbergasted stare remained focused on the confident young water bender; he wasn't exactly sure if his guess was correct, so he decided to confirm it by asking the young water bender one simple question.

"Katara…how old are you?" he asked as he gazed intensely at his woman; feeling his nerves about to shoot out of his flesh.

Katara scoffed innocently, "Okay, I'm not following here Aang; this isn't the time to pl-"

"I'm being serious…Katara." said Aang as he cut off the ebony beauty from continuing her sentence, "_Tell me your age_." he asked quietly.

"Aang…sto-"

"PLEASE! _Answer me Katara_…" he begged; lost in the glistening beauty of her deep, blue eyes.

The young water bender was reluctant to answer at first; unable to decipher Aang's motive to his random question, but decided to go along and answer it anyway. She'd answer to anything if it meant they'd both head back to the Earth Kingdom capital as soon as possible.

"_*sigh*, _Aang…you know I'm 14." she answered warmly.

He felt his heart sink down to his gut as he painfully processed the answer to his question, "A-a-and how old am I?" he asked, pleading to the heavens that she would answer correct.

Katara wrinkled her nose as she annoyingly complied with Aang's off-topic questions, "You're 12, well, not exactly. More like 112." she answered assuredly.

The terror that slowly stabbed its way into his gut was unfathomable as he sensed her sincerity in her voice; how he wished that she were joking, but to his dread, she wasn't. He was talking to the woman whom he's spent the last eight years of his life with and held such fond memories with, and yet to his dismay, she didn't remember him, didn't remember anything beyond the day she described. He now knew the incident has affected her far worse than he assumed, and with that thought in mind, the young Avatar pressed his lips and took a deep breath as he prepared to confess to the young water bender the truth.

"_Katara…you're not fourteen…you're twenty-two years old."_ he conveyed sympathetically.

Katara blew a raspberry, "What? heheh Aang, what are you talking about? Come on, we don't have t-"

"KATARA, youuuuu…aaaaare…tweeeeentytwoooo yeeeeaars ooooold." he said in elongated words before he parted from her grip and placed his hands gently on her shoulders.

She furrowed her eyebrows, "N-no, no there's, j-justnowaythat-"

"And I'm not twelve…I'm twenty." he answered sternly.

"Bu-b-b-but y-"

"You and I have been married for five years." said the young Avatar; his gaze sorrowful.

"What, what are you, wh-"

She didn't want to believe it; she refused to believe it, "T-this, THIS IS _NOT_ FUNNY AANG!" she shrieked.

"_I know_." he answered dismally.

Katara nodded with doubt; her astonishment apparent in her expression and shocked that her old friend was defending an almost cruel charade. Still unconvinced, she continued to rebuke the young Avatar's claim, "No, you're wrong. This, allofthis…doesn't make any sense; I don't understand how-"

Then, realization dawned on her…

As her expression became blanketed with shock, she placed her hand over her covered breasts as she did before and slowly grazed her hand all the way down her thighs, and once was once again reminded of how curvaceous she has become.

"_H-how could my breasts and hips have grown substantially in such a short span of time?"_ she thought to herself.

Distress soon crept in as a hot flush engulfed her face; her hands shaking once again as she slowly began to take in Aang's words as truth. She suspected earlier that something was strange about her figure, as she felt bigger than the petite size she was normally used to, but she needed to check again.

And as soon as she gave her breasts and hips a light squeeze, dread swallowed her whole. The size of them has indeed grown, but although Aang's claim was beginning to have a solid base, her denial still reigned dominant in her rational thought; convincing herself that this didn't prove anything.

"_No, no,_ this..._this isn't real_; p-perhaps I'm going through a, a spontaneous _growth spurt_?" she naively suggested.

But just as she was about ready to dismiss the young Avatar's claim, she found her vision gradually returning to her, and she was slowly able to recognize her surroundings.

Little by little she was able to tell the features in the home; from the same bed she's slept on since she was but a little girl to the animal hides that decorated the walls, from the traditional dining arrangements used during every mealtime to the empty, cast-iron cauldron that sat by the snow-carved fireplace, surrounded by its blackened ashes. And finally…she laid eyes on the person who stood in front of her, the figure that claimed to be Aang; slowly emerging from the blur he was constricted to as her vision continued to improve, and slowly, she began to discern that Aang didn't exactly look the same way she last remembered him.

"_Huh?"_

The first thing her large sapphires glimpsed was his face, no longer that of a boy's but of a man's; strong features such as finely trimmed lips, cheeks, brow and nose along with a chiseled jaw were predominant in his appearance. But it was those rounds of silver she had already become acquainted with that finally convinced her that this person was indeed the Avatar, and that he was no longer a boy as she had last seen him…but now a full grown man. As she sighed dreamily at the handsome face that stared back at her, she found her awe-stricken gaze unintentionally wandering down to his chest and abs; strong and sinewy in form, unlike the child-like body she last remembered him having. And then finally, her eyes traveled down to his most intimate area; gasping loudly at the sight before she turned her awkward stares away from him. Looking blankly at the far corner of her home and breathing heavily yet again as she curled herself into a ball, she tried to make sense out of this entire situation.

"_No, ooooooo no this can't be Aang…t-this cannot be Aang…"_

For the sake of her sanity, she tried to convince herself that there was absolutely no way any of this was happening; that perhaps her vision was still hazy and as a result, didn't analyze him correctly. But as her shimmering, icy blues drew to the naked man once again, she found those familiar, blue arrow tattoos that she knew no one in the world wore; now certain that they weren't painted onto the skin as she had speculated before, but tattooed with precision onto his flesh, those same blue arrows that were only worn by the last Air bender, now worn not by a young boy, but worn by a young man.

As they both exchanged heavy gazes at one another, she was once again reminded of the inescapable truth; it became official: She has now stepped into her own worst nightmare.

"_Yo-you're twenty_?" she asked in a shaky voice as her eyes glared desperately at the man before her; somehow still hoping for a different explanation to all of this.

Those rounds of silver stared at her dauntingly before Aang shook his head in agreement; his answer being met with only her silence.

The young Avatar looked on as his wife finally grasped reality; balling his fists as he hopefully waited for the ebony beauty to respond, but just as relief was about to settle in his chest, terror struck as he watched his wife's eyes close shut before she succumbed to faint.

"Katara? Katara!" he yelled as he reached his arms out just in time to catch her before her body collapsed onto the floor.

Aang stared cynically at the woman he held in his arms while he absorbed everything that just happened, and to his wretched gloom, he knew that the situation has escalated to levels far too dire to ignore. Katara's severe memory loss has confirmed his suspicion, there was no way around it; to his horror, the events of the previous night had indeed caused a tragic effect on his wife, and now he was left to blame himself for not having responded sooner. With that haunting thought in mind, he lifted his woman from her legs and carried her to the bed so that she could rest; covering her with their warm bed spread as he pondered over what he was going to do and how he was going to explain what happened to her when she awoke. He knew this wasn't going to be an easy thing to do, so he decided to get dressed and alert the only person that was aware of his dilemma; the only person he was able to confide in…

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><p>By the newly built harbor on the far edge of the Southern Water Tribe's settlement, a young Warrior was disembarking from his hunting boat; having gathered in the final, enormous fresh catch of fish and crustaceans for the final potluck his Tribe was to have before their permanent move to more stable land.<p>

"_AAAGH, these things are always so darn heavy; I wish that son-of-a-gun brother in law of mine was here to help me out with all of this." _He grumbled under his breath before he lifted the net full of seafood over his shoulder and rested it on his back, but just as he was about to start his strenuous journey of delivering the fish back to his Tribe, his sharp gaze came across a small pool of water perfectly carved from the snow just yards away from the harbor…and was soon reminded of the reason why his brother-in-law wasn't there to assist him…

_Midnight blue was all that could be seen from the horizon, with the exception of small twinkles of light decorating the night sky and the full moon that illuminated the entire Southern Water Tribe with its brilliance. The young Warrior had just finished making a huge catch of Cod Trout and Fresh Water Halibut Shrimp before he heard a nightmarish scream._

"_SOKKA, SOKKA COME QUICK!" screamed Aang hysterically as he lifted a limp figure out of the icy waters._

_As soon as he heard his brother-in-law call his name, the young Warrior dropped his catch and ran as fast as he could to the screaming Avatar who sat soaking wet on the bone-chilling snow; cradling what he perceived to be a lifeless woman in his arms…_

Sokka stared blankly at the opening in snow as his conscious mind returned to the present, _"I need to go check and see if she's alright."_ the young warrior thought to himself before he broke his stern gaze on the hole in the ground and proceeded to make his way back home.

As he continued his somber walk back to his Tribe, he spotted someone in the distance running towards him; a man with pastel-yellow robes sprinting at speeds that no mere person could rival.

"_HAH, speaking of the devil." _Sokka thought to himself; he could recognize the bald-headed figure dashing towards him from a mile away.

"_Sokka!"_ yelled Aang as he continued his quick pace towards his brother-in-law's direction; waving his hands in salutation.

Sokka placed his catch onto the snowy ground as he readied himself to greet the young Avatar with a weak grin formed on his lips; that is, until he abruptly picked up on Aang's distress before he even reached him, sensing from his desperate demeanor that something was very, very wrong.

"_Oh no…"_ he thought to himself as the young Avatar finally caught up to his location, and as soon as both men made eye contact, only one question flooded the young Warrior's mind.

"Is she alright?" he asked concernedly.

The young Avatar hunched his back; placing his hands on his knees as he stabilized his erratic breathing. When he was able to collect himself, he raised himself and faced his brother-in-law; cold tears running down his soaked cheeks as if he were sobbing for hours, yet his expression still and emotionless.

"_No"_ he answered as he shook his head in denial; rubbing his cool palms over his tearful face as he covered his mouth, _"I don't think so, Sokka."_

The young Warrior's expression turned bleak as Aang's response sunk in, and he found his mind racing with terrible worst-case scenarios, "What's wrong with my sister, Aang?" he asked .

"II-I don't know." answered a panicky Aang as he gripped his head tensely; pacing back and forth as his nervous words continued to spew from his lips, "I know this is going to sound strange, b-but I woke up to Katara nearly running out of our home wearing nothing but a, err...long drape." he claimed as a soft blush formed on his cheeks.

Sokka's face contorted itself with disgust, _"EEWWWW_; alright, I _so_ didn't need to know that." he cringed as his body shivered with repulse at the image of his sister naked.

Aang however didn't have time to entertain his brother-in-law's reaction, "Just hear me out Sokka! That's _not_ what I needed you to hear." asserted the frustrated Avatar, "I panicked at first; thinking she was going to try something foolish, but I kept my cool and started talking to her as if I noticed nothing out of the ordinary. But then, then she started talking to me, saying weird things like how we needed to be ready for the day of Black Sun and Ozai; she thinks we're _still_ fighting the war Sokka; she even told me she thought she was still fourteen and that I was still twelve." he explained.

"A _hundred_ and twelve." pointed out Sokka.

The young Avatar growled; clenching his teeth as his eyebrows bent with anger, "_Whatever…_" he hissed, "But the point that I'm trying to make is that I think, what happened yesterday did something to her. I believe she's suffering from some sort of…_amnesia_ or something." answered the young Avatar. "I didn't know for sure Sokka; I mean, she seemed fine when I approached her, a bit frightened but fine, and there didn't seem to be any physical sign of distress so I didn't exert the issue. _But the way she was rambling afterwards_…it just seemed as though she had, s-sufferedablowtothehead or _something_ because she, she didn't even remember anything about us…_or our relationship_." said the young Avatar with dim eyes.

"Amnesia? Pfft What? Ok in all seriousness Aang, I think you're being duped. I mean really, how could she _not_ remember your relationship? You guys have been together for so long, and even if she did have 'amnesia', _your marriage_ together is not something I believe you forget about. Tehh, I bet she's bluffing so that she'll gain your sympathy after what happened; girls always do stuff like that." said Sokka in his cracking voice.

But Aang dismissed Sokka's sexist suggestion, _"I don't think so Sokka."_ answered the very tense Avatar, "You should've heard her; she was going on and on about how we needed to prepare for the invasion, and that Ozai was going to take over the world if we didn't get back to the Earth Kingdom. I didn't believe her at first either, but then she looked at me with that petrified glare she makes only when she's really spooked about something and I _knew_ she wasn't fibbing." said Aang as he rested the curve between his thumb and index finger over his forehead, _"I wasn't talking to my wife this morning Sokka, I was talking to the girl I left back in Ba Sing Se to master the Avatar state eight years ago."_ he professed cryptically.

At first the young Warrior thought the Avatar was pulling his leg, but as he began to read the melancholy in his worn eyes, he realized that he was indeed genuinely serious about his claim.

Sokka's face was overwhelmed with shock,_ "Oh no…You're being serious?"_ asked Sokka in disbelief.

Aang merely grazed his sight over the young Warrior before he shut his eyes with remorse.

Sokka's lower jaw dropped as he gripped his locks tight, _"I thought…Aang, I really thought she was going to be alright, now we really need to get some help."_ he insisted.

Aang shook his head as the idea of having had the opportunity to do so continued to pester him, _"I know…_and I HATE myself for thinking that she didn't need to see a healer, believing that she would somehow miraculously wake up absolutely fine with no repercussions…." rambled the disheartened young Avatar.

Sokka's gaze became filled with sadness as he battled the irritating tears that wanted to escape his eyelids; reading himself to console the young Avatar, but just as he was about to speak, he found himself holding his words as he took notice of the young Avatar's face twisting with anger.

"_Stupid me for thinking that everything was going to be ok, for assuming that she was going to wake up healthy; that no one would need to know what she tried to attempt because we would talk it over, resolve the problem and we would both just move forward from there…but it looks as if it's worse than I thought, Sokka, a lot worse..." _he hissed as he glared menacingly into nothingness.

Their conversation was enshrouded with an aching silence for a few moments, that is, before Sokka lifted his leg kicked his fresh catch so hard that cracked shells and organs spewed into every direction; a loud grunt escaping his wide mouth.

"RRRRRAAAAGH! How could she be so careless!" he screamed bitterly, "If she didn't _try_ to do the UNTHINKABLE, we wouldn't be worried sick about her right now. I mean, I know that it's hard to-"

But Sokka immediately cut himself off as he caught Aang's balled fists trembling erratically as his chest raised with every forceful breath he took, and quickly swallowed his words.

"_Oh man…Aang, I'm so sorry."_ Sokka apologized as he went to reach for his brother-in-law's shoulder.

But before the young Warrior had the opportunity to do so, the young Avatar bit his lip as his eyes ignited with rage; grunting mightily before he raised his foot and released all of his fury in a ground shaking stomp.

The young Warrior got on his knees and waited for the minor quake to subside before he once again got back on his feet. He didn't know what to say to the distraught man; there was nothing TO say, all he could do is give him his sympathy, "Aang, I know that- I mean, I-"

"It's alright Sokka." answered the young Avatar dismally; no longer filled with anger, but woe, _"There's nothing you or I could've done to prevent what happened last night…but it looks like it'll be me that'll be left to deal with the consequence of my mistake."_ he finished.

Sokka then walked towards the young Avatar and placed his hand consolably on his shoulder as he looked out into the vast body of water and glacier, "Don't worry Aang; we'll take Katara to the North Pole. I'm sure Yugoda and the rest of the healers will know how to make her better." suggested Sokka comfortingly before his caring smile suddenly flipped into its stern counterpart, _"But now we're definitely going to have to tell my father what happened."_

But Aang was oblivious to his brother-in-law's solacing words; he was too busy staring at the perfectly carved pool of water by the harbor in all of its lonesome, his heavy gaze full of resentment and grief as he glared at the scene where the incident occurred the previous night.

* * *

><p><strong>I'm pretty sure that most of you are still in the dark as to what's going on; not to worry, the answers are coming…<strong>

**Alright, I'm off to bed. G'night fellow readers (-_-)  
><strong>


	3. Gist of the matter

**Severance**

* * *

><p>He slept alone that night, and the night that followed, and the night after that. A week passed and still the same reaction from her. The hysterical response of his wife when he saw him nude on the bed once again was enough to prompt him to dress and sleep in the living room until he finally sorted this all out. The light of the morning doused the darkness from the inside of the house and greeted him, casting orange glows on the peaks of his face and shadows on the hollows. Sitting on the edge of the couch as he tapped the heel of his foot so quickly the entire leg trembled, he bit the nail of his thumb to the flesh, ignorant to the pain and metallic taste of blood in his mouth.<p>

His silver eyes trained to the floor and brow furrowed so deep they almost touched, he pondered over the many questions that aggravated him because he couldn't pinpoint their answers. Why was she acting this way? Was she pretending? Maybe she purposely planned all of this to get back at him for… he pushed the thought out of his mind. Did she know? How? Panic set in his gut, accompanied by the sickening feeling grabbing hold of his insides. The answers couldn't be farther away from him, while the questions continued to pile on. But at the moment, all he cared about was the welfare and stability of his wife, all which seemed to have crumbled like shards of ice on solid pavement.

Just then, he heard his voice called, snapping him back to the world from his mental quarrel.

"_Aang?"_

His eyes opened wide like if he were punched in the gut as he eagerly rose from his seat, brushing the dust out of his clothes that was never there to begin with.

"Katara, how are you hon-"

"Please" she demanded with a nervous quiver in her voice, the shake in her fingers apparent even in their interlock, "Aang I'm just not, I'm still not used to hearing you, seeing you…" she struggled to finish her sentence, unable to find his gaze.

The way she spoke to him was distant and almost cold; he couldn't put his finger on the right word. Then it came to him, indifference was what he heard. It slightly angered him, witnessing her acting this way while he's going mad trying to figure out what's wrong with her. It was then he decided he's had enough of this, now was the time to put his wife to the test and see if her ailment was legit. He'd worry about the possible repercussions later.

He breathed in deep and exhaled agitatedly, "What's your deal, huh?" he lifted his hands and let them fall, slapping his hips simultaneously, "Why are you doing this to me? It's been over a week Katara. I know this has been extremely hard for you, but did you stop and think what it did to me too? All of it?" He bit his lip to keep the tears from spilling and watched her with a bitter scowl.

The young water bender stared at him troublingly. She appeared to have been crying, her eyelids puffed and red with dry streaks that drew paths down to her jaw. But she no longer looked distressed, now enraged by his accusation. "What are you playing at? Do you think I'm mocking you? Heh, how do I know it's not _you_ who's playing a trick on _me_!" Her neck lunged and voice broken and raspy with fists balled back.

The young Avatar swallowed as he gazed at her, marveled by her hurt, and for a moment he felt relieved, but still fuming, "So you're not pretending?" he asked.

The morning flow found had found her, settling in the delicate features of her face and protruding contours of her body. She wore a flowy, blue dress with endless rounded creases which cascaded down past her feet. The neckline stretched past her shoulders, while her wavy tresses dressed her bare upper chest. However, the only adornment that truly mattered to him, her betrothal necklace, was nowhere to be found. The sight forced his scowl to fall and surrender to gloom.

Her eyes burned and stung as new tears began to seep from her eyes and fall, but her expression was still as serious as when she entered the living room, "If this truly is the reality I awoke to, then you should know by now to take my word and trust me when I say that I have no idea what has happened to me." She frantically gestured and pointed to every direction in her view, "T-this, this, all of this. It-t's hard for me to imagine that this and those…and you." she sounded almost appealed but repelled by the idea as she skimmed him up and down, "How can all of this be mine if I don't remember living it?"

They fell silent, him analyzing her and her analyzing him. Who to trust? Neither of them knew.

The young Avatar slowly approached her. The bottom of his robes dragged on the icy floor as he strutted, intently gazing at the ocean blue spheres before he finally stood before her. He raised his hand and hesitated from her flinch, but drew the courage to reach for her face despite her expressed objection. Her eyelids scrunched in a wince like if he were on the verge of killing her, but the way his eyes hooded while he caressed her cheek and grazed her cheek proved otherwise. She drew a deep breath and exhaled her tension as she eyed his lips.

"If, to the fullest extent of your abilities, you're being honest with me," he earnestly pleaded, "Then I assure you that you had my word from the very beginning."

She watched him in awe as his gaze shifted from her own to her lips, still in disbelief of the man who stood in front of her, and how amazingly handsome he was. Those broad shoulders toned and sculpted along with his tender, yet manly voice. Could this really have been Aang? Was she really still talking to the scrawny, goofy kid who made farting jokes with her brother typical conversation? What an amazing thought that this man, this beautiful, gorgeous man was all hers, but this, the knowledge of such a reality that accompanied him was all just too much. She felt his thumb wipe her tears as he smiled tenderly, his eyes creased cheerfully.

His hands moved gracefully to hers, grasping them in his hold as he took a step back.

"I took a week's leave from my regular council meetings to tend to you. You may not remember anything that's happened as of recent, but you're still my wife, and it's _my_ primary duty to care for _you_ when you absolutely need it. I will tell you everything you want to know in due time, and Yugoda will visit you periodically for the next few weeks. She set sail from the Northern Tribe a fortnight ago, so she should be arriving any day now."

Yugoda, her she remembered. The sweet, old healer that taught her everything she knew about medicine and spiritual therapy. At least there would be someone she can talk to that's recognizable. The water bender then watched as the young Avatar's expression shifted to stern determination.

"If it gets to the point that we need to abandon the Tribe any time before that, Yugoda will follow us wherever we go until we figure out what's wrong with you." he paused as he longingly gazed at her beauty, "I know it must be difficult to see your surroundings on the verge of changing but…it'll get better Katara, I promise. I will make everything better for you." He pressed her hands onto his lips and kissed them fervently before he whispered, _"I don't know what happened to you Katara, but I won't rest until I find out."_

* * *

><p>It was midday, and the sun had become so unbearable that work in the community had been canceled for the remainder of the day. Water now covered places where there was once ice, dreadfully near its approach to the Tribe, ready to swallow it whole. Most people were already packed and ready to depart when the time called with the exception of a few families here and there, one of those families being her brother's, who always chose to do things at the last second. Packages and bags riddled his entire house, on sofas, tables, chairs and corners- typical Sokka. It looked as if some things would never change, but that was until she caught sight of his wife and old friend. Barely recognizable without her make-up and headdress, she took a seat next to her sister-in-law, who she didn't have much of an issue getting used to seeing in adult form.<p>

"Your father wanted me to tell you that he loved you before he left to the Northern Tribe. It was nice of him to go and help people move some of their things, that trip can be daunting." said Suki as she handed her a tea cup filled near the rim with Jasmine tea.

Katara smirked and accepted the offering gratuitously, "Thanks Suki, I really appreciate you telling me." her smirk transformed to a warm smile, eyes squint as she stared down at the hot, swirled liquid, "Dad's always been that type of guy to help people, his title as Chief really suits him well. Going to have to check on Gran-Gran in a little while though and make sure she has everything she needs while dad's away."

She nodded agreeably, "I'll come with you." She forced a weak smile as she analyzed Katara like a science experiment.

"Thanks." was all Katara said.

There was a brief silence, which the young water bender used to take a sip of her tea before she shakily placed it on the coffee table in front of her.

Her sister-in-law then perked her head upward, "So, you're not sleeping in the same bed?" asked Suki.

She shook her head timidly; hands cupped together and rested on her thighs, "Well, I still sleep in the bed, but he doesn't."

Her sister-in-law eyed her with a puzzled look on her face, her arms now crossed, "Oh? And why's that?"

She bit her fingernail and cringed, "Uh, well I'm kind of…scared."

The young water bender watched as the former Kyoshi warrior's lips curled slyly, head cocked to the side with an intrigued look in her stare. "Scared?" she guffawed, "Scared of what, him? He's not going to eat you Katara, at least if you don't give him permission to."

Katara couldn't help but giggle. This was the Suki she remembered, bold and not afraid to tell it how it was. The few differences were only her hair, now dulled and intricately woven in a single braid down to the small of her back and her facial features a bit spread out. Her cheek bones looked fuller and her lips a bit paler as well, but she was still Suki.

"So, how have the healing sessions been going?" asked Suki.

The young water bender groaned and rolled her eyes, "_Hahhh_, still nothing. They searched my mind in and out, but they didn't find anything. It was as if my memories were literally stripped from me."

"It's really strange that they were unable to find anything." speculated Suki, her chin rested on the crease that divided her thumb and index as the disturbing news sunk in.

"I know." agreed the young water bender as she shut her eyes and recollected her last meeting with the local healers, "I know everyone's been refraining from telling me any information of my life since that day, only tad bits here and there, just until they were able to grasp some memory they could feed into so I wouldn't be forced into it and potentially cause more trauma. But I never thought it'd require so much time…and so much of my power." Her chin sunk to her chest, her eyes barely open.

Suki watched helplessly as her friend tried to decipher herself like a lotus cube. She looked so dejected, and the exhaustion displayed in the bags under her eyes and hunched demeanor was bothersome. To top it all off, she heard she hasn't eaten since the day she awoke. Why did this have to happen to her friend, of all people? She'd never hurt anyone, why her?

"Well, in retrospect, at least you were spared the memories of the dumb things your brother has done for the past eight years." her chuckle was weak and edgy as she shrugged her shoulders; arms bent and palms face-up.

Katara tried to conjure a smile, but could only find the energy to smirk, eyelids dimmed halfway and her breath shallow. There was next to no room for laughter in the little energy she had left in her reserves, "I'm just so tired, Suki. All of this brain dissecting is making my head hurt, I just feel so drained from the tip of my head to the soles of my feet."

The humor in Suki's expression suddenly dissipated as quickly as it appeared, her hand lifted and rested on the water bender's shoulder as she leaned towards her ear, "Katara, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do."

The thought touched a nerve in the confused water bender, forcing her head to jerk to her friend's direction as her lip twitched. The remark was a bit eccentric which was typical coming from her old friend, and she knew Suki only meant well. But there were many things in her mind at the moment, many things that she didn't want to do, or be, that she knew would strike a major chord on everyone she knew and loved. She exchanged glances with her and if only briefly, allowed Suki to take notice of the agony in her gleaming, wandering eyes. There had to be an answer to all of this, there just had to be.

Suki immediately noticed her friend's distress. Her gasp was sharp before she immediately wrapped her friend in her arms and pulled her to her chest. She pawed her hair gently and rocked her as if she were cradling a newborn babe. Although Katara was buried beneath her, rendering her face unable to see, she heard and felt her harsh weep escape her as clear as day.

"_Shhhhhh, shhhhhhh, its ok honey, everything's ok. You're going to be fin, you just wait and see." _

Her profuse coos were drowned out as the young water bender's weep morphed into stronger sobs within the former Kyoshi warrior's hold, so strong that her body jolted with every deep breath and gasp, clutching her sister-in-law's arms so tight she feared she would escape if she even momentarily loosened her grip. Her entire body shook from the overwhelming feel of hurt and guilt she harbored within. Then she muttered under her soft, fragmented breath,

"_I just, I don't know if this was all played right Suki. Did I make the right choice, or did I end up making the biggest mistake of my life in marrying him."_

She felt as Suki's consolation and rock came to an abrupt halt. It finally came out. After having spent the time since she woke trying to figure it all out, the real reason to her inner turmoil, and it was blurted out by a mere comment meant to comfort her. Of all the things it could've been, the focus of her misery was the idea of being married to Aang, who at the time of the day of Black Sun, she only saw as a little brother. Never mind the fact that there was a complete time lapse which shot her straight to adulthood, or that her home resembled a catastrophic dystopia on the verge of being abandoned, her childhood being left to rot; No, it was all irrelevant.

The whole idea of it riveted spams through every nerve ending in her body, rendering her frail from the sick feeling that penetrated into her head and stomach. She felt unworthy of anyone's sympathy, and in reaction to what she had done, she pushed her sister-in-law away and curled into a ball, eyes completely shut as she proceeded to find solace in herself for what she had confessed, wondering how long she's been ignorant to her selfishness.

But she felt delicate hands curl onto her shoulders once again before they rubbed against her arm skin. How long has it been since she felt such comfort? The last she remembered a grasp like that was from her mother. With her eyes still closed, she pictured her mother standing before her, gorgeous and exactly as she remembered her. The background was an endless white void, her mother embraced in its foggy, bright splendor as she held her hands out, beckoning for her to follow. She could barely reach her, almost touch her, but she felt the pull of reality yanked her back. She lurched forward; her eyes shot wide and her gasp so deep it was as though she were submerged in water. When she finally took sight of Suki's face, Katara wished she left with her.

It wasn't disdain that greeted the young water bender, but rather the most difficult expression one could face: pity.

Suki's face was contorted with dejection, a pout crimped together with eyebrows curled high and a tilt to her head. There was an inner struggle that reflected in her deep brown eyes, like a battle of will and Katara sat destitute in the front row, powerless to stop it. Yet she remained silent, which made the young water bender incredibly uncomfortable. She stared back expressionless, but she wanted badly to beg and plead for her to say something, anything to spare her the taste of the torture of being in the loudest mute she would have to endure when she gathers the will to tell Aang the truth, but she knew it was best to stay hushed and not cause further animosity.

"Katara…you know you have to tell him." she insisted as she frowned somberly.

The idea of having to tell Aang something so potentially life-changing and grim was disgustingly heartbreaking she felt pins and needles drill into her chest, the thought of his possible reaction alone made her want to regurgitate, "No, Suki." she objected hastily, "I-I want to try something."

The former Kyoshi warrior raised an eyebrow, "Try what?"

The befuddled look she received from her sister-in-law made her question even herself, but she returned it with an ardent gaze permeated with certainty, "I want to try and make it work."

Suki drew in another deep breath, pinching the bridge of her nose as she nodded disagreeably, "But you basically gave me the impression that the idea of being with him repulsed you."

She bit her lip and mentally cursed the Spirits for giving her the ability of being so easily perceptible, "I don't know, maybe if we try something, perhaps do things that everyone claims we did together, it'll trigger something, a memory, maybe."

The stun that emanated from Suki's expression only spelled one thing: An epiphany.

"Oh my goodness…" she rose from her seat and reached for Katara's grasp, her mouth gaped, "That…might actually work!" Her glee had finally returned with a vengeance, each corner of her lips threatened to touch her cheek bones as she beamed straight, white teeth at the young water bender., "And I'm probably not allowed to tell you too much, but judging by how happy you were before all of this happened, I'd say you most certainly didn't make the biggest mistake of your life when you became his wife."

Elated by her friend's response, she couldn't resist the contagiousness of her smile, and she soon found herself with a similar grin etched on her lips. "I really hope this works." her lips pressed. She meant every single word she said, both deeply excited by what she proposed to do and terrified out of her mind of the consequences should it backfire. Could she relearn to love him? Only time would tell.

* * *

><p>The eerie glow of dusk blanketed the horizon, signaling straddlers of all ages to return to their homes, yet the cool air of incoming night was so inviting that it drew the people of the Southern Water Tribe out of their homes to breathe in the chill they were all too familiar with, and would miss deeply when the time came to leave it all behind. The ground ahead was as black as the night that pushed the remnants of day away, on the cusp of engulfing everything into darkness.<p>

Away from it all as they overlooked the frozen tundra from a cliffside, the young Avatar stood in awe of the spectral sight, feeling just like the evening sky- on the verge of being consumed by the hopelessness riveting his mind, soul and body. Accompanied by a very close confidant and outstanding healer who hailed from the Northern Water Tribe, she agreed to meet with him despite the long and exhausting trip.

"Her loss of memory had to do with the trauma she endured as I'm sure you probably suspected, but usually memory can be easily retrieved after just a few hours of healing sessions and a few drops of Spirit Oasis water. I don't understand why she hasn't fully come back yet, it's baffling really."

Yugoda then bent over and opened her medicinal bag, rummaging within its contents while the wind struggled to lift her weighty hair. She took out a plastic model of a divided head with half of a brain and a pointer out, placing the tip of the pointer on the very top front of the model's cerebral surface as she circled around the area, while the young Avatar intently paid close attention, "The frontal lobe here is where all memory is stored for the long term. We have taken this entire part and combed it Aang, even examined the rest of her mind and still came up with nothing." she concluded darkly.

His stone grays trained forward, he breathed in hard; the air felt like cold vapor which tickled his nostrils, "So what you're telling me is that her memories aren't where they should be? Not anywhere, just completely gone?" he folded his hands behind his back, standing gallantly as the wind flirted with the skirt of his robes.

She took the plastic head and delicately placed it back in the bag, followed by the pointer before she once again rose, her posture straight and her expression unchanged. "Precisely, young Avatar."

Aang allowed the troubling information to sink in, but it was so much to swallow, and he found himself spiraled and stuck in his own personal sea of sorrow coupled with fire and brimstone and crying children.

"A lot on your mind son?"

He nodded, "I've tried everything that's been thrown at me to make her better Yagoda. I clipped a piece of her hair, burned it and tied it to a black opal as instructed, I soaked her head with saltwater mixed with drops of water from the Spirit Oasis, made her eat strange plants and fungi which made her vomit, made her DRINK the Spirit Oasis water, cleansed her and the house with Sage, I even paraded in the nude a couple of times under direction of the healer mind you, to see if it would wobble out any memory she had, making MYSELF look like a completely fool and she's _still_ not getting it. _*Sigh*, _I guess I'm just frustrated is all." he released his bitterness in the form of a rant.

"Well, wasn't that a daily routine for you both? The idea does seem far-fetched, but it's not like you have many options to gamble with." Her eyes glowed a deep orange as the sun radiated its final light for the day.

"Yes, it was," he blushed at the thought, "But it's usually not such a good idea if the other person isn't in accordance, get me?" he didn't mean to sound so harsh, but the question was silly, and he had little patience for dumb questions at the moment.

Yugoda understood his grievance and didn't question his tone, but smiled sympathetically as she pressed her hand on his shoulder, "I know you both have been through much Aang, more than what many people ever see in their lifetimes; which is why you need to give yourself time as well. You may not realize it young Avatar, but you sound as though you're just as upset with her as you are frightened of her condition."

If he had any tears left in him, they would have fallen as soon as she finished her sentence. Truer words have yet to have been spoken to him since the incident, and it was touching to see someone understood what he was going through as well. She understood.

"It's just…why would you she do this to me? Why would she want to leave me that way? I feel so hurt from all of this and I'm doing all that's in my ability to fix her, but this is just so much…and even if she were somehow miraculously made better, it still wouldn't explain why on Earth she would do something like that. Katara would never, EVER try something so ridiculously selfish."

"People do ridiculously selfish things in the midst of their grief." she pointed out.

"Yes, but something just doesn't sit right with me. Like the answer to all of this is right in front of me, but I can't see it…or touch it."

"I know many of the local healers, your friends and family have been telling you that she attempted to take her own life in the midst of your loss. Keep in mind that this may be true. However, I too feel that there's a small possibility that _something_ else was in the works that night, more of a hunch or a, a gut feeling per se." she attempted to find the right words to describe what she felt.

He pivoted his head to her direction, eyeing her curiously, "What do you know, Yagoda?"

She glared at him from top to bottom, not sure exact what he meant by that question, "I know nothing about what's happened to her." she assured, "But…I do know a few things about her 'symptoms', and I can assure you that I have yet to see _anyone_ enter through my doors after being on the brink the way she was and return without an ounce of recent memory left in her cranium." she hissed.

The young Avatar couldn't believe what he heard, bewildered and desperate to hear more, "What do you suspect?" He returned her glare with his own as he waited for her response.

She fiddled her fingers, "Well, I don't want to be an advocate of conspiracy theories but…" her guard dropped, worry now the expression in her face as she hesitated to continue.

Aang's eyes widened as all the optimism in the world flooded his senses and filled him with hope, even if just a glimmer, and turned the rest of his body towards her, "Please Yagoda." he pleaded with hands balled together in front of him, "I need to know the possibilities, every possibility."

The healer shied away, reluctant to share such dire information especially if was for the sake of mere theory. But what could it hurt? Aang would probably pester her continuously until she told him anyway. May as well.

"Well, I know of an old saying, a very old saying that originated in the Fire Nation, how one can 'get lost in the darkness'. I don't remember all of the words, but the phrase was more of a parable, but some swear by it literally."

His attention was fully snared and grasped, and the healer held the reigns, "What does it mean?" he asked.

"Well, it's a phrase originated and commonly used in the practice of the craft, you're acquainted with knowledge of the craft right Aang?"

Of course he knew. Originated in the Fire Nation, few people practice the old ways and had since developed a bad rap for being insinuated in being connected with evil. He knew a few practitioners personally and thought they were very friendly, he knew better than to ask anything personal that pertained to their religion.

"Yes, I know."

She delved further into her explanation, "The craft doesn't necessarily deal with evil Aang, only the practitioner has the ability to warp his or her own magic to do either good or bad. The phrase I told you about is part of a moral message, which conveyed that one could easily become consumed by the very magic they practice if they're not careful. Messing with the wrong types of entities could bring about unimaginable consequences to the poor soul who tries to use magic for personal gain at the expense of others or to hurt other people."

She cleared her throat as the young Avatar allowed himself to absorb every single piece of information that escaped her lips, "But there are others within the craft's circle who believe that those who practice the black arts of the craft, or evil arts, have the ability to eliminate one's memory completely or at the very least up to a point, thus rendering them 'lost'. This memory would in turn be placed in something of a void, thus, getting lost 'in the darkness', but I'd rather not talk about such things." The thought of it rattled her immensely.

"I don't understand." He looked bemused, eyes askew and his lips partially parted, "What does this have to do with Katara?"

"It was common practice amongst those who practiced the evil craft, to seek revenge and get back to those who did them wrong. It's believed that such people don't even exist anymore, since a black art practitioner hadn't been seen in over a millennia, but it's reckoned they're out there still, quietly carrying on their rituals away from the scrutiny of the public." she halted for a moment, "The reason why I'm even telling you this Aang, is because Katara has shown some symptoms of what's called within the circle as being 'seized' or 'partial possession', where the possessed will temporarily lose touch with reality and do things that aren't in their nature to do. After-effects of such possession include dramatic memory loss. In light of her uncharacteristic behavior, coupled with the inability to retrieve her memories, the thought popped into mind. Any enemies that you or Mrs. Katara have had at any point in your lives?"

Now he understood, "Probably too many to count. How would I know where to start a search like that without potentially hurting my image or even worse, ostracizing people from me and Katara?" he asked dimly.

She chuckled, "It was just a theory, mere speculation, nothing more. Who knows? This could all be symptoms of-" she paused for a moment, her cheer dropped and her eyes skimming around at nothing "Don't put too much thought into it young Avatar. I'm sure we'll have Katara well in no time." she reassured.

But the subject had already peaked his interest despite having it complicated the matter at hand, and he was so far gone in the very possibility that he refused to drop it, "So how do you know all of this?" he asked.

"Well, let's just say that some of my healing techniques aren't exclusively Water Tribe." she winked and leaned closer to his ear , lips blocked from view by her varicose-riddled, wrinkled hand, "Best not let that slip out of your tongue, otherwise it'll be my job." she warned with a kind grin.

He noted her curiously as he wore a scowl beneath his grateful façade. Lips straight, he focused on the final rays of sunlight as they disintegrated in the horizon. He wondered if she knew anything about what's happened to Katara. Then it hit him; no, she couldn't. Someone with something to hide would never entrust anyone with such vital information.

Either way, he truly was thankful for the information he's received. The idea terrified him, but the possibility was minute, yet it was there, it nipped and gnawed at him like a teething puppy. Perhaps the answer to Katara's ailment lied in Yugoda's suspicion, now his own. But for now he was going to try to use her methods and would resort to 'extend his search' for answers only when he has exhausted every resource he had. Who knows, maybe he would have the chance to dismiss the whole thing as mere fairy tale, one less possibility down, which in turn would lead him closer to the answer he desperately sought.

The young Avatar nodded and smirked, "I wouldn't dream of it."

* * *

><p><strong>Man, I love suspense...<strong>


	4. What can't be known

**Severance**

Midday had come, and the sun was at its strongest. The soles of his feet ached from the two-hour long tread he had taken to the inner depths of the South Pole. Yagoda's words have bothered him since that day, and he was determined now more than ever to get to the bottom of all of this. She was kind enough to entrust him to a source he could count on as reliable if he ever needed to know more about it, and one that really took him by surprise. The heat had now become unbearable, but Aang had to make this track towards the location of the woman this source told him about a few weeks before.

A humid breeze tickled the bare skin on his head as he squint his eyes in search for any clue to this woman's whereabouts. He looked up, pissed that there wasn't a cloud in sight, but he had to keep going. He already made it that far and turning around would've potentially have proven his attempt to find her nothing but a waste of time. He wouldn't give up on Katara, he promised her that, but the horizon seemed endless, nothing but snow, walls of ice, mountain and sky bordering against one another in front of him, behind him, all around him. The scenery mocked him with its illusions, which angered him even further. She had to be around somewhere, but where?

Treading the jagged path of melting ice and slush, he recollected the conversation he had with Zuko with uncertainty, after he confessed to the Avatar of his secret and very recent conversion to the Craft…

"_What made you decide to_ _be err, one of them?" Aang wasn't sure if he was walking on eggshells when it came to the matter, but his curiosity burned greatly and as a result, couldn't hold his tongue. _

_Both men sat across from one another in a small chamber below the Fire Lord's Palace and away from all of the hustle and bustle of the servitude. The walls were decorated in Fire Nation drapery and an enormous fire insignia below their feet. A small, square table separated them; each one with a gold goblet filled with fine, red wine in their grasps as the flickering flames that burned from the walls illuminated the side of their profiles._

_The Fire Lord looked as if he wasn't sure of how to go about answering his friend's question, lip curled as he combed the loose strands of hair away from his view with his fingertips. "It was for personal reasons Aang; I'd rather not bore you to death with the details. But it's detrimental that you not mention this to anyone including those within our group. It took a long time to reestablish the dignity of the Fire Nation, and I can't risk everything I've worked so hard for to be destroyed in a manner of seconds by people's superfluous fears and misconceptions." his hand laid over his chest and his eyelids squint with glare, "No one can know I partake in the practice of the Craft. Ever."_

_This was the old Zuko that peered through at that moment, the one who's still trying desperately to restore his honor. He gulped in his throat as he exchanged the same deep stare, "I'd never do that to you Zuko, and you have my word." Aang reassured, _"_But you really think she'll have the answers I'm looking for?" _

_The Fire Lord cupped the base of his drink between his middle fingers as he gently whirled it around. He stared at the whirl he created inside, "She's the Head of all of us, our Matron of the Unknown. If there's anyone who would know the inner and outer workings, the good, the bad and the evil of the practice, then this is the woman you want to speak to. She has all the answers."_

"_Anything else I need to know about her?" Aang wondered._

"_Yep. She's an ego junkie. You need to explain to her exactly what she wants to hear. You know, stuff like, 'I really need your help', 'you're the only person who can help me', 'woe is me without your expertise'. Stuff like that. Butter her up to no end and you'll have her in the palm of your hands." His eyes rolled, then he bowed his head with agreement._

"_Ok" The young Avatar took a sip from his goblet, "So, why did she all of a sudden choose to live in solitude out of the blue? And in the middle of all that ice?" his brow arched with suspicion._

"_I have no idea." Zuko sipped from his drink and smacked his lips clean of the remnants of liquid, "She just up and left the Nation without mentioning to anyone except the few in her circle where she was going. Never really elaborated much on her 'choice of living'." He quoted with his fingers, "But she did tell me before she left that she preferred to live that way anyway. It's been a couple of years now and she still hasn't returned to the Fire Nation so I guess she's happy where she is, yet you'd think she'd choose to live somewhere more comfortable, you know, where one doesn't run the risk of getting frostbitten. It's mindboggling, isn't it?"_

_Then, Aang remembered the Guru who taught him how to unlock his chakras and in turn unlock the Avatar State, and how he too chose to live the life of a recluse for the sake of maintaining his own spiritual stature, "No, not really." He said with a smug look on his face, "besides, the poles have been heating up for the past year so I guess it's not as bad as we're thinking." He jerked his head and chuckle before he took a big gulp of his drink._

_The Fire Lord creased his forehead, "Why in the world would you have any interest in any of this anyway? You already have the power of all the elements at your disposal. Are you that hungry for more?"_

_Aang shook his head as his eyes lazily followed the ripples of his drink, "It's not for me, I need to know some things." His stone grays locked with the Fire Lord's solid ambers._

"_What is it that you need to know?" asked the Fire Lord._

_Looking at the wall as if spaced out with a grin, he kept the thought that he didn't want anyone to know exactly what he was up to or why in the back of his mind, so he simply responded, "I would tell you if I knew..." _

His thoughts returned to reality and he continued his now strenuous climb up the tumultuous mountains. The thought of knowing that a subcultural religion had survived for so long and he knew next to nothing about it was disturbing to him. Even if he wasn't sure whether or not it had anything to do with Katara's condition, it sure didn't hurt to investigate on its background even further.

He thought twice about that last remark as an enormous boulder began to rumble and tumble towards his head. With pupils contracted, a fail swoop of his hand and little time to react, he created a whirlpool of wind that catapulted the boulder into the heavens and out of sight. But consequently, in doing this he slipped on the corner of his sash and lost his footing before he himself plummeted towards the wet rocks below. He was falling fast, and his grunts followed every direct hit his body took from random contact with the slope of melting snow, but his nimbleness kicked into overdrive as he quickly made an air ball that bounced him away from a pillar of rock and into stable ground, avoiding a headfirst collision with its point.

With hands laid on the mushed snow, he took a moment to regain himself. Panting heavily, his lungs burned from the mixture of generating body heat and the cold of the air; this was not what he had in mind when Zuko mentioned it would be 'just a light stroll', "Why does this woman have to live beneath the ground?" he whined and heaved. Then he remembered the clue the Fire Lord gave him that would lead to her whereabouts.

"_Her dwelling is concealed beneath the veil. The South Pole isn't the only place with an Oasis, but you have to believe it's there."_

For someone who didn't believe in fairy tales, Zuko didn't seem to mind sharing that piece of information without an ounce of shame. But he did say afterwards that the 'old bat was probably going senile if she believes there's an Oasis in the middle of the South Pole'. He couldn't help but laugh and wonder what would Zuko be in for if this woman ever heard him badmouthing her that way.

Back to the matter at hand, mountains began to tower above him. He would've been conformed flying up in the air and sifting the area with his eyes, but this woman apparently arranged her living quarters like an optical allusion. And he gave her credit for doing just that. So many times he, Katara and Sokka walked around the same area when they every now and again accompanied his brother-in-law on hunting trips; they did this repeatedly and never once did any of them spot a blade of grass anywhere. It was a long shot, but he was that desperate to find out exactly what happened to his wife. Every lead had turned cold and all signs pointed to temporary insanity, but he refused to believe his wife lost her mind. He had to keep searching, he just had to.

"_You have to believe it's there…" _Zuko's words wisped through his mind again.

A pang in his gut prompted him to stop. He knew that feeling too well, a convenient perk that came with being the Avatar, his uncanny ability to sense that something was amiss had become essential in many of his past circumstances. This moment proved to be no different. Now crouched, he skimmed the area around carefully and searched for plant life, bug life, any life. But he found nothing, just snow and rock.

Getting frustrated, he creased his brow, sat on the snow and began to meditate. "Believe…believe. Believe." He chanted in silence as he cleared his mind of any unnecessary debris that might obstruct his focus.

Yet nothing happened. He incanted Zuko's words feverishly over and over again. Still nothing. But he didn't give up and remained diligent. He used the memory of his wife as his fuel while his whispers continued on, each one overlapping the other in a dance of sound. His voice became an ethereal hum, bouncing all over him and all over the mountainside, or was it against the air? He wasn't sure, all's he knew was that he felt silly while the words continued to flow from his mouth, but he put his pride aside and did it anyway. He was that desperate. Goosebumps rose from his heated skin until he suddenly felt his feet give way to the ground, which had begun to ripple below him.

He broke his concentration as he airbent himself to stand. He eyes the ground skeptically, unable to believe what he was seeing. It was the oddest thing, rippling snow? Preposterous. He was weary of what he was looking at; unable to make sense of what he was seeing as his trembling hand closed in on the ripple. A droplet of sweat trickled from his nose and fell onto the ground, which caused another ripple to form and expand before his eyes.

"What in the world?"The shock was laden in his eyes and he felt himself on the verge of freaking out, but he quickly shut them and took in a deep breath, "Ok, relax Aang breathe. Let go of fear, be brave. Be brave."

He tried to calm his nerves with reassuring words, but never once did he see anything like this in the Mortal World, so what exactly did this mean? He had no clue, but it couldn't be good. Yet he had to delve in further, he was the Avatar after all, and a coward was someone he would never be. Finally, he reached down, his hand still trembling, to touch it and managed to grab hold of the snow. Only it was no longer snow, but had morphed into gelatin-like paper, a membrane with the image of snow on its glossy surface, now having been peeled off the ground. The sight of it was so surreal, trippy, but he braced himself for what he would potentially see and peaked below it. Below this membrane laid an abyss, an endless tunnel of pure darkness.

The scarce strands of short hair from the back of his neck stood up and his mouth went dry. With a huge gasp and bug eyed, he let go in a flash and staggered a few steps back. It was unlike anything he'd even seen before, darker than form of black that existed in his world. Then, the membrane that was between his fingertips a few moments ago began to glow an eerie green where he touched, Its surface vibrated while the hole remained open, and he felt the force draw him from the small of his back closer and closer into its mouth. Jaw tightened with teeth exposed and the pressure shown on his angrily squint eyes, his feet dug deeply into the snow as he used all of his force to airbend himself away from its grasp.

But try as he might, it was too late; the vacuum hidden beneath was too strong for him to resist before his feet ultimately gave way, the force sucking him until he completely disappeared as his screams faded into the shadows.

* * *

><p>A log cabin stood outside the boundaries of the Southern Water Tribe. Within its walls, the ivory drapes were drawn; sunlight deprived from the inside and only candles illuminated the surroundings. With the exception of a few simple household adornments and essentials, the room was bare. In the middle of the room she sat on a stool and stared at the candle that stood on top of the console table next to her.<p>

She watched as the overflowing pool of liquid that surrounded its flickering flame stirred, while a drop of hot wax surged down the candle's base as if entranced by its movement. It doused her blue kimono with its orange light, and she wondered how such a small thing could do something so meaningful and so great. How she wished the solution to her problem was that small and that simple.

Just then, the woman who sat across from her snapped her fingers in her face so as to once again grasp her attention. She blinked her eyes tightly before she turned with this woman, whose annoyance was evident in her creased brow.

"Please Katara, if we're going to make any progress here then you must do your part as well and pay close attention to my questions. Now, tell me in the best way you can what you recollect from that day." The healer scolded as her funny looking square hat wobbled every time she tilted her head.

The exceptionally puffy shawl wrapped around the healer's shoulders and the large, doofy bifocals she bore on her face made the young water bender want to chuckle, but she bit her lip before one managed to escape her. This was a serious matter that needed to be taken as just that, no matter how silly she thought the whole ritual was. Now relaxed and her mind cleared, she took in a deep breath and puffed the air back out as she closed her eyes and concentrated on the arduous task. It was the same repetitive procedure she's been partaking in for weeks and weeks, all of which yielded the same results: nothing. That day was no different.

"I don't remember anything." she answered, her right foot pressed over the other as she tried her best to ignore the enlarged eyes the healer's glasses reflected.

"Please try, Katara." The healer pleaded with hands cupped, "Focus."

She tried again, still nothing happened and she was beginning to feel discouraged.

"*sigh*, what's wrong with me?" she pursed her lips with shame. Perhaps everyone was approaching the issue all wrong, since the sessions weren't working. This is the second healer that's been assigned to her. Not even Yagoda was able to unravel her problem, and if she couldn't, what made people think anyone else would?

Then, her eyes caught sight of a vase with an odd looking symbol of a tree that sat on top of the dresser. It was crooked, odd looking with dead branches. It was strange to her, the random vase, of all the things that could be in that room. Suddenly, she felt her mind collapse…

The room melted right before her eyes; the healer, the walls and that random vase all disintegrated into a swirl of black before being sucked down into a drain. Horrified by what she was seeing, she shut her eyelids and gasped repeatedly in hope that some oxygen to her brain would clear her thoughts from this unexpected hallucination. Her lungs burned and her bottom lip twitched, yet she continued her steady breathing technique. _"It was just a panic attack, that's all; it's making me see things. When I open my eyes everything will be back to normal..."_

But when she opened them, she was no longer in the room with her therapist. She instead stood on the doorway of a concave dome made of ice with rows and seats coordinated as such, witnessing some sort of meeting. In front, the older Aang she met not too long ago stood in front of what seemed to be important authority figures, she judged by their attire, while a few others in fancy garbs and members of the White Lotus sat behind him on these rows. Her brother was amongst one of these people, the older form that is, and their father sat right next to him. Each one had a pompous look on his or her face, while Aang remained emotionless; they seemed to be talking about something rather serious, but their voices were too quiet to hear. And with every other second, the scene seemed to change for every flash she saw, with people shifting their positions throughout the room and pointing their fingers at his face, but Aang remained stationary.

It was then she realized that this had to be some sort of trial, but for what she wondered. What could Aang had possibly done to merit being persecuted and treated this way? Had he rebelled against his loving nature as he got older? Right then and there, she took a glimpse at a familiar-looking woman who hid herself in the far back exit, gripping the borders as if she were about to collapse from weakness. No one noticed her. Her dark brown hair was wet with strands glued to the skin of her face and neck, and her clothes slouched from her body as if she just tossed whatever she could find on without a care in the world as to how she looked. And then it hit her, those striking blue eyes, familiar eyes; the same ones she looks at every single time she looks in the mirror.

"Is, is that…_me_?"

Disturbed by what she was witnessing, she watched helplessly from the other side of the room while her other self sobbed in her lonesome. And she felt her pain, her hopelessness, and all the ugliness of what this woman was experiencing. Unable to resist her forlornness, her eyes glistened and she too felt her own tears swell and smudge her vision. Too much to bear, she collapsed on her knees and fought the desolate feeling that tried to embed itself into her heart. Was this a memory? A hallucination, or what's to come in the future? She turned her attention to the others, then to Aang. She needed to know more, but the scenes were moving rather quickly and everyone's speech was distorted. So she leaned in closer to discern what they were saying before their conversation was over, but she still couldn't understand them; their words then echoed loudly, jumbled and chaotic before they became garbled as if they were all underwater.

Then everything became a blur, a blue blur, and that's exactly where she found herself: underwater. Time seemed to backtrack thereafter, and she then she was no longer in water, but now stood on the outskirts of the Southern Water Tribe in the middle of night. A hole filled with ice water was dug from the snow next to her, and out of this hole came out a naked woman, seemingly defying the laws of gravity as she glided out upright and continued to walk backwards with her back hunched and barefoot on the snow. Katara blushed at the sight of this person's nudeness, but she couldn't help but be curious as to whom this person was, or why time in itself had reversed. However this woman's face was covered by her long, wet hair, so she had no idea who she was.

The scene changed, and now this woman was fully clothed beside the hole, her tresses still covered her face. This woman proceeded to undress herself and turned her back to Katara before she jumped feet-first into the water-filled ditch. Katara's gut sank as she watched the horrible sight, but before she could reach for this woman's hand; her entire body was already completely submerged in. Aghast, she belly-flopped onto the edge of the hole and frantically searched for any sign of the woman; her heart accelerated and on the verge of quitting on her while her hands probed the water. But she found nothing, only bubbles of air that kept popping up less and less frequently. But she didn't give up; she continued to look for her, still, she found no sign of life. Then she heard a voice in the distance, but she couldn't care less; she needed to save this girl. Just as her hands were poised and ready to bend the ice water, Katara felt a pull on her back and she was plunged again into darkness.

Her eyes opened, and she once more found herself in the log cabin, only she was no longer in her seat next to the console table, but sprawled on the ground looking straight at the ceiling. Around her, every piece of what little was in the room was spread on the ground, torn and destroyed, while her healer was kneeled beside her with her jaw extended and a needle in her shaky grasp, inches away and ready to be injected into Katara's skin. The arm of her bifocals hung from her ear, and she glimpsed into her eyes, her real eyes, for the first time. Midnight blue and normal sized like hers, filled with panic. Both women stared at each other, out of breath and trembling; stunned, shocked and confused, unable to make of what each one saw.

* * *

><p>Darkness spun all over, dizzying him as the topsy turvy motion disallowed his brain to follow what was happening around him. Compressed in endless black for what seemed like an eternity, he couldn't tell which way was up or down, left or right. All he knew was that he was still freefalling somewhere, zipping in petrifying darkness, and specks of brightness growing and growing until he was engulfed in a ball of white light. Just then he felt his chest hit something solid with a loud thump as he shouted, <em>"oomph!".<em> The wind was knocked out of him at contact, and he writhed and groaned in temporary pain as the metallic taste of blood settled on his tongue. The muscle explored the inside of his mouth and found the cut on the inner wall of his cheek, "Just a bite." He moaned.

Then, he took notice of the soft, pointy tips of grass that tickled his nose, neck and hands. His eyes squint involuntarily so as to give his stone grays time to adjust from the blinding brightness he traveled from and into the proper lighting of this foreign place, _"It can't be all that bad."_ He thought, _"At least the heat's bearable in here."_

At that instant, his eyes widened. What a sight it was! Perfection was the only way he could describe where he laid. The scene before him overlaid by a crescent of mountains with snowy tops, beneath him was a symmetrical island of lush green grass and all sorts of bright, exotic flowers that ranged evenly in size, the scent carried forth by the light breeze that sent it his way. Eyes closed, he whiffed and savored the remnants in his senses as it filled him with newfound energy. He then opened them and looked behind him- Trees, endless amounts of forest covered as far as he could see of the land that lay divided from the island by a moat of crystal clear, water as blue as the clear sky above him. Butterflies hovered around and all over, while the distant sound of birds chirping rung nicely in his ears.

A gush of flowing water took his attention, and he turned to view its source. He was so taken in by this jungle paradise that he almost missed the most captivating scene of all: an Oasis smack dab in the middle of the island. Its round stones sat atop one another and slanted down towards the middle as pristine water cascaded from the snow that covered the mountains high above, while vines decorated its wall with green leaves and white flowers. He slowly rose from the ground and brushed off what little dirt managed to cling onto his damp robes while he stared in awe of the magnificent display of nature. A white waterfall descended onto a darkened pool below, so beautiful. The smell and sound of the clean springs were an invigorating indulgence on his senses. He was so captivated the breathtaking landscape that his irregular breath didn't bother him so much, heck he practically ignored it. He almost didn't feel the fingers on his shoulder either, and a squeal came out of his mouth first before he awkwardly fell back in response. A short, chunky woman with long, silver hair, saggy, wrinkly skin and a mole protruding from her bottom left cheek greeted him.

"Welcome Avatar. Never thought I'd see you in person so soon please don't be shy, make yourself at home." She extended her hand to him.

He did as he was instructed and braced her grip with his own as he got back up on his feet. Although the scenery was easy on the eyes, a newfound wariness of his surroundings crawled its way into his gut, "That was, the most bizarre thing I've ever experienced," he huffed.

She looked at him eagerly, "I'm Ezra, Matron of the Craft. Welcome to my domain. I'm sorry about the entrance; I assure you I'm working on giving my visitors a less oh how you say, overwhelming access." Her masculine voice was evident of years of having had one too many smokes.

"How-how did you do all of this?" he asked.

"Why, with magic of course. And a little elbow grease. Pretty snazzy eh?" She answered as she pulled out a drag from her dress pocket and placed its filter between her lips, "The dark tunnel you just traveled through is a portal that I formed, a rip between space and time, molded to connect the Mortal world to this." She opened her arms gallantly, "You and I are now in a small area of time and space which I also created- separate from your world, the spirit world, and beyond. That's how I've been able to maintain the temperature here so nice and cozy. It's my own private little bubble, both figuratively and literally speaking."

"Beyond?" He ignored the other fascinating details of this woman's supernatural skills and instead focused on that specific word. Aang never gave the concept much thought before, and was now surprised that he never did. It almost seemed…familiar to him.

She took out a match and bent down to scrape its tip over a callous stone that seemed to appear from nowhere, producing a small flame, "Another term for what exists beyond the Spirit World. Now tell me young man, who sent you here?" she put the flame over the tip of her smoke and inhaled.

"Well,-"

The match burned out, and she pressed the small stick between her middle and index fingers until it vanished in thin air "Ahh Zuko, I see." She interrupted as she held her smoke in her breath, which left Aang speechless to her display of sorcery.

"But I, I didn't, how did you-" His words came out scrambled as he struggled to process what he was seeing.

She cocked her head with an amused smile while smoke flew out of her nostrils, "I know many things and can _do_ many things Avatar, things that would terrify even you." Her answer was as cryptically as it was menacing, while her drag went the way of her match between her fingers and disappeared, "Now that you know what I'm capable of, I don't have to pretend like I don't know why you're here. You spoke to the Fire Lord about a major problem you've been having. Apparently you have many questions for me." Her sharp words sounded as though they were supposed to be threatening, but instead were filled with much anticipation and jolliness. It was jarring to see.

It looked like Zuko failed to mention this little tidbit of personality info to him. He looked at her curiously and wondered how exactly she anticipated his arrival, but the thought alone that this old woman possibly had the ability to peer into his own mind or anything more gave him the willies. Though he found it incredibly interesting, he didn't like the idea of being someone else's open book. So he pushed his curiosity aside and got straight to the point. His voice shook as he spoke, "My wife, there was an accident. I'd rather not go into details about it but, *sigh*, I don't know what's going on with her or why?"

She analyzed him for a moment with a look of deep concentration on her face, as if fixated by him. Then she lifted her palm to him and pouted her lips before she spoke, "You don't have to elaborate. I am so sorry for what happened to the both of you." The thought of his memories was unsettling to her, "I feel for you Avatar, I really do, but tell me how any of that has to do with me?"

She sounded callous, like a little child who had just begun to comprehend empathy, but he knew where she was getting at. It was like Zuko advised; he had to play her game.

"I was told of how when a practitioner who dabbles with the evil side of the Craft and possesses an individual, they can control their sense of reasoning and even take their memories and place them in something of a void. I'd figured you'd tell…me-"

Silence was all he received from her, but it didn't matter, the answer was etched all over her face-pure terror.

Aang was startled by the sudden shift of her mood, "Matron?"

She stammered a bit, and then shook her head before she once again regained her perkiness, "Yes yes yes of course of course, but first please sit. Entertain me with your Avatar-ness." She cheeked as she manifested a warm crumpet from thin air and handed it to Aang, who accepted the food rather uneasily. Why did she look so worried when he explained himself?

"Err, thanks. What would you like me to do?" he asked rather anxiously as he took a seat on the luscious grass.

"Oh nothing really, just sit there. It's not every day one is in the presence of one of the oldest Spirits in existence. A simple chat would suffice for me." Her quirkiness had no bounds.

"Alright then…well. There are a few things that I've been curious about." His lips pressed, "Why all the secrecy, about being a practitioner? It seems like many of you are afraid to even claim that you are one."

She sat down before him and peered into his eyes, "Do you fear the unknown Avatar?"

He remembered when he lifted the snow and unveiled the entrance of the portal, "I'd prefer to live bravely and face my fears."

"Good, and that's how you should be. But there are many who don't see it that way. Most people fear what they cannot understand, see or touch, what they are taught as 'normal' and 'acceptable' is all they know, and everything else is strange and forbidden. That is what we are, like ghosts to the general population, to be feared and shunned. Better to practice in the obscurity than to be scrutinized and potentially ousted by the public."

Butterflies flew over his head, capturing his attention, "Can anyone find this place?" He gestured around the premises.

"Of course anyone can, however one has to know exactly where my portal is. Can't just will yourself to come here from anywhere, that's only part of it." She guffawed.

"Why do you choose to live away from this realm? Why not move into the mountains or some other secluded area?"

"Because that's the only way I can operate in your world without the interference of the other realms. That way, others can't find me. I prefer my privacy very much Avatar, and I'd like it if no one ever found out about my exact whereabouts except those within my circle of trust. It's essential that it remain that way." she knew she explained too much.

And he knew he had her pinned at that moment, "So you're living in hiding?"

"Well, no?" she sounded unsure, her fingers running through her hair as she exposed her large earlobes to him, "You see Aang, I like living away from people. People are rotten, and I chose to be away from anything foul because-well I mean_…*sigh*_, you know what? That's none of your concern!" she couldn't sound more childish.

But Aang was persistent- because he knew she was lying. "Why are you living in hiding Ezra?" he demanded to know.

She was at a loss for words. Both of them glared at each other as if there were some silent war of the wills waging forth between them, yet there was no way for her to navigate around his question. He wasn't going to stop anyway, and quite frankly his stubbornness was beginning to annoy her. It was inevitable that he would find out at some point, she figured she may as well quit avoiding the matter and decided to give him what he came for, even if she didn't think it was the right time to do so.

The rush of the waterfall behind her eased the tension for a few moments while she bit her thumbnail all the way down to the skin, she contemplated her words carefully, and then she parted her lips to speak.

"Oh alright!" she moaned while her hands flailed in the air, "Humph! Seeing as you're the Avatar, I believe you need to know exactly why I've been living here for the past few years, but in order to understand my quarrel, and likely yours, you must understand your own past."

The conversation was leading up much quicker than he had presumed, to his relief. The place although very nice and peaceful, was giving him the creeps. "My past?" he arched an eyebrow, "What does that have anything to do with all of this?"

"The story of the Avatar." she lifted her chin; her voice as humorless as the expression on her face, "Dates back many millennia…"

_During the Primordial Time, there existed only one bender…appointed by the Spirits to guard and protect humankind, he alone had the ability to control all of the elements…he had no name, some called him Deity because he was like a God to them all, others called him Bearer because he bore the Spirit of the World within him, but they all knew him as King, because he controlled them all…_

_He never died, an immortal incapable of death only if forced on him, no one stood up against his glory, and like the Spirits our ancestors worshipped, he too was lavished with all sorts of material possession…riches, jewelry, clothing and sweet perfumes along with all the women he could bed, it was all his, and what he said went no matter the objection … below him served one unified Nation, and every generation since the beginning of life knew him and catered to him without question… and for five thousand years he ruled…_

_Then, he met a young girl named Kuja, sweet and kind, barely fifteen with raven black hair and bronze skin…she brought herself before him wearing nothing but a leather cap on her head and a necklace of blue beads wrapped around her neck and waist as a gift to his greatness…she came from a family of impoverished Crafters, they had very little and had decided to sell her to him, but he was cautioned by his Spiritualists that she along with her family practiced 'in darkness', or evil, and that not all was as it seemed…_

_He refused to hear it and dismissed it as pure gossip and folly, he was so bewitched by her seductive beauty that he immediately disowned his own partner and four children and took her to be his main bride despite the vast warnings of other soothsayers…._

_Not long after they wed, she was with child, but his Spiritualists continued to urge him of the impending danger, 'she will bring upon this World pure and utter destruction', they warned 'she is the Bearer of chaos' they begged him to heed, even after the birth of his son, whom he named Gildemar…but he grew tired of their lies, "How is this frail woman a bearer of anything except my child?" And he ordered all of his Spiritualists to be beheaded…_

_The years came and went, each one he spent alone and without guidance…with every moment that passed by, he grew more and more paranoid…he would hear voices calling him, but Kuja and their son reassured him that it was only the Spirits trying to communicate with him…he knew the call of the Spirits well, and this was no call from any benevolent being…he couldn't sleep or eat, he couldn't even think anymore, erratic thoughts haunted him both in his dreams and his waking life, so he deserted his position as King and sought refuge from his former partner and their four children…_

_In hiding he lived for more than twenty years… until his fifth child Gildemar, who had replaced him as King soon after he left the throne, waged war on humanity in the name of what he called 'the void'…With his own hands, Gildemar tore open the very fabric of this reality, it was magic no Crafter had ever seen before…out of this tear he brought forth a legion of shadow, incapable of feeling neither pain nor compassion, its only objective to consume everything…and consume it did, swallowing entire providences filled with men, women and children without a trace, leaving nothing behind…_

_With unimaginable power and an impenetrable force of shadow and possessed armada at his command, Gildemar alone brought death and terror unto the land….until his father, the sole bender of the World decided to fight back…_

_Alongside his sons, daughters and rebels of the Nation, he fought through the mindless soldiers…pain struck his heart for every blow his blade made with their flesh, once his people, drained and devoid of any humanity…blood coated the land, with every man he lost, he destroyed part of the shadow legion with earth, with every woman he lost, he destroyed part of the legion with fire, and he repeated the pattern with air and lastly, water… _

_No more shadow remained, 'but countless others will soon replace them!' bellowed Gildemar, whose eyes became completely black and his voice inhuman, and with a maniacal cry he dug into the air and began to tear…but the bender's astuteness proved to be far greater than he anticipated, and before he was able to break the fabric of reality yet again, a blade pierced through his hand, and he shrieked something horrible…to his shock, his father held the handle of the blade, eyes aglow and thunderous clouds surrounding him…Yet he anticipated his father's attack, and with a jaw of his sword, Gildemar stabbed him…_

_Horrified, the bender's army stood motionless as they saw their leader fall into his own pool of blood, and the brilliance of his eyes dim into nothingness…all hope seemed lost until a little boy from a nearby village appeared with bow and arrow in hand, his arrow directed towards Gildemar, dead set on his head…Gildemar threw his sword like a spear towards the child as a last resort of defense, but it was too late, the arrow had become airborn…he had no time to react, and before anyone had time to grasp what they were witnessing, the arrow pierced Gildemar's skull, while his blade simultaneously skewered the boy's body… _

_He fell beside his father's body, dead…_

_What remained of the inhabitants of the planet mourned the death of its true King, they knew well what this meant…he died in 'manifestation', hence they believed their King would never rise again…then they looked at the boy, courageous and brave, he still clung on to life… they watched helplessly as he coughed globs of blood and struggled to speak, hand gripped on the handle of the blade that pinned him on his position…barely nine years old and golden eyes dilated, he began to chant to the cadaver of the fallen King just yards away…_

"_I sacrifice my soul for the sake of his own, I sacrifice my soul for the sake of his own, with my mind, body heart and spirit, I will that he rise again, again and again and again…" _

_He slurred the last of his words before his head collapsed, eyes wide open as he succumbed to death…then out of him a light rose and engulfed his lifeless body, the light rose, and he was gone…this light then suspended over the fallen King's body and fused with it before the cadaver also disappeared in the blinding brightness and out of sight…the people, awe-struck and in tears, had no idea what had happened, but they now knew who was responsible…_

_The fallen King's children captured his former wife Kuja, and before those who remained, she confessed how it was all for the glory of the void…she and her family planned her seduction, her marriage and ultimately her conception with the former King…she explained that he alone had the power to conceive with the seed of her master, thus how Gildemar came to be…she then rambled on of how they all belonged to the void and how they were all its children, and then of how she and her family 'invited the tiny owl' and that it 'taught them the truth about the Avatar, and the truth about the Spirits'…but before she was able to speak what that truth was, she was struck by lightning from the heavens, quieting her forever…_

_Then a blaring roar radiated from the heavens, the voices of the Spirits shouted to the people of the World that their King would one day rise again, but that in turn, the people must be divided so as to avoid this tragedy to ever repeat…they called upon the sons and daughters of the King to kneel, and they did so without hesitation…_

_The Spirits blessed the King's eldest, his descendants would bend the Earth…_

_The Spirits blessed the King's second eldest, her descendants would bend Fire…_

_The Spirits blessed the King's third eldest, her descendants would bend the Air…_

_The Spirits blessed the King's youngest, his descendants would bent Water…_

_With their final call, the Spirits called upon the four siblings to make their own Nation, and through them their father would be reborn in a cycle that can never be broken…the once great Nation collapsed, and out of its ruins four were born, each one represented an element, and the siblings became the Kings and Queens of the four Nations…together, they demanded that the family of Kuja be killed as well so as to avoid the ritual that brought forth Gildemar from ever being repeated again…but rumors soon stirred that a little boy managed to evade the slaughter, her nephew, whom a few wounded villagers spotted escaping into woods before soldiers raided their home, never to be seen again…later it as dismissed as fairytale and poppycock…_

_Nevertheless, the people rejoiced at the demise of their deaths, and a decade later the Spirits proved true to their word, and a child was born from the Nations, one who was able to manipulate the elements…Unlike their previous King, they wanted to give this being a name worthy of reverance…_

_And they called this child, Avatar…_

The silence was deafening. Aang gaped at the ground as if imagining the story unfolded before his unblinking eyes. Tips of the grass in front of him brushed his numbed fingertips as he swallowed, while terror and sadness seeped out of his blank stare. His heart ached, it had suddenly become all too familiar to him, but he remained straight in his posture and didn't give in to the smothering feelings that seethed from within. Ezra saw the distress within his calm, and she gave him a few moments to let this knowledge sink in, but she didn't allow him to linger on and broke the silence between them.

"Thousands of years passed, and fact became legend, legend became myth, and myth disintegrated within the timeframe of history. The true history of this world has been lost with time young Avatar and with justifiable reason. You don't want to tempt those whose ears are easily tickled. This is why Kuja and her family were destroyed, their curiosity proved to be their downfall."

"It's eye-opening to know all of this, like I had already known about it without knowing it at all. It's really weird. But what does the past have to do with my dilemma?"

She cackled maniacally as she took out another smoke and match from her dress pocket, "Ohohoho this has everything to do with every person residing in the World! You see I've been monitoring a 'disturbance' in the mortal field, as I like to call it, away from the distracting hullabaloo of vibrations that pass through the planet on a day-to-day basis. And I don't quite know what to make of them."

He leaned in closer, "What's the problem?"

"Let me first explain this to you. All the realms overlap one another Aang, passing through each one without acknowledging the other's existence. Did you know that you and I are currently standing on the very same spot you opened my portal? You can't see the South Pole, but it's here, all around us. Get me?"

"Ok sorry but, it's a bit confusing." he scratched his head with a puzzled look on his face.

She eyed him with a pout, "You and I are currently occupying a space within my bubble, while this very same space is occupied by the reality of our World and the Spirit World, and subsequently, a space in the void as well. These realities coexist within the same space, but in different dimensions, and neither can affect the other. Now, when a connection is made between realities, the fabric of the two dimensions dip and morph and form a tunnel, a celestial tunnel made up of waves that ripple throughout fabric of both planes, just like the portal I created that connects this plane with the mortal world."

"Oh ok I get it now. It's like the different Worlds are invisible, but they're still here." He perked.

"Now we're getting somewhere." She lit up her smoke and inhaled before she blew out a puff of white smoke, "I have sensed a few ripples here and there throughout the years, like the times you went into your Avatar state, or when fellow Crafters went on shamanic journeys, but never did I sense a dip so deep and terrible before, so I contacted the Spirits for guidance. Here's the kicker, I was informed that no such connection had been made between the Spirit World and our World, or even this universe. I had already suspected it, but I needed their confirmation to be sure. I've been meaning to contact you about this potential problem only until I could pinpoint exactly where it's coming from, but now that you've made your way to me, there's no sense in keeping you in the dark about this any longer."

Then it hit him. Now he understood the problem.

"My concern here Aang, is that the myth of the boy who escaped execution wasn't a myth at all, but rather a fact; that he had somehow survived and in turn, the knowledge of how to summon the void survived with him and _his_ descendants. I fear that this is where the disturbance is coming from." She looked almost bashful as she twirled her silver hair around her fingers.

But there was an issue with her theory, and Aang was quick to bring it to her attention, "But what makes you so sure that anyone's summoning the void? What if it's just another crafter who created something like your bubble for themselves?"

"Because _I'm_ the only person on the planet who possesses the ability to create portals and dimensions, that's how!" she exclaimed, then shied away from his stare, "I know I may sound like a paranoid schizo here but I need you to believe me." she pleaded with her hand over her chest and eyes now widened, "Think of this. I'm the only one in this World who knows how to make all of this, this skill entrusted to me by the Spirits themselves, chosen to guard its horrible secrets from all mankind, yet there is someone else on our planet that also has the method to bend, break and mend the fabric of realities, as I sensed from these abnormal dips. Now tell me how that is possible?" she asked in an ominous tone.

Aang gazed into her eyes. It made sense, it was true, all true, and Aang's worry was soon apparent in his expression, "Because whoever's doing this acquired the knowledge from somewhere else."

She bit her lower lip as if angered by the very thought of it, "I have tried my best to keep this knowledge of the dark Craft away from all ears. But I fear that all of my efforts have been in vain. Believe it or not Avatar, shadows aren't the only thing that lurks within the chaos of the void, something far more sinister swims in its eternal darkness, waiting for the perfect opportunity, the perfect circumstance, and the perfectly gullible buffoon to persuade in order to enter our World."

The young Avatar took his time to ingest all of this new found knowledge. It was all so much to take in, the tragedy of his past, this new threat, and he still didn't know what happened to his wife. The countless possibilities alone was so exhausting to think about, he didn't know where to begin.

"You must promise me not to speak of this conversation to anyone Aang, not to your wife, not to your brother-in-law or Zuko, no one." She hissed with her index finger pointed up, "One slip-up is all it would take for this information to land on the wrong ears. It's always ever watchful, always listening, so you must keep your mouth shut. This is why I had to keep myself away from our realm in the first place; too many meddlesome people who couldn't keep their noses out of people's business, including those pesky coyotes who are always sniffing around for that overgrown owl's own personal satisfaction of 'pertaining all knowledge'. She mocked as she muttered silent curses under her breath.

Wan Shi Tong, how could he ever forget him? And it seemed that his thirst for knowledge still persisted even after the library's been buried under desert sands. He couldn't help but roll his eyes, _"Geesh, talk about obsessed."_ he thought. Then, another one crossed his mind.

"Backtracking to the story of my origins, so this thing, whatever it was that needed the Avatar to create an offspring? Why the Avatar and not any other Spirit? And what was the truth about me and the Spirits that was so forbidden that the Spirits just struck Kuja dead right then and there? Maybe the answer lies in the resolution to all of this."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you Avatar, but I'm afraid I don't know the answer to those questions, though I wish I did. There are parts of history that elude even me." She ducked her head with shame as she puffed her smoke and blew, leaving around her a cloud of smoke that blew towards Aang.

He pressed his lips and swiped the smoke away from his nose, "Does anyone else know about all of this?" he asked.

"No. you and I are the only ones that are aware of what's happening and it must remain that way for now."

Nothing could've delighted him more at that point. No one else knew, which was perfect grounds for investigating further without anyone intervening and possibly sabotaging his efforts, "I need to know more about this. I'm going be paying a visit to a few Spirits." He said with determination.

"I'd be surprised if you didn't." she seemed to be in good spirits again, "I'd do it myself, but I need to pinpoint exactly where this dip is coming from before I could do anything else, and in turn stop whoever is messing with the fabric of our reality. This needs to be looked into further young Avatar. It may or may not have anything to do with your wife's unnatural behavior but you must at the very least try to find out where this dip is coming from, it's essential that you do so. Whomever or whatever is doing this does not have any of our best interest at hand."

"Right. I'm on it. But there's still something I don't understand," he got back on his feet and brushed his robes with a scowl, "How does all of this pertain to Katara?"

She drew in a wheezy breath, and looked at him with intense eyes as her brow creased down to the bridge of her nose, "History is threatening to repeat itself, and if anyone or anything _is_ doing this to your wife, it may be for a far more sinister purpose than you can even begin to imagine- using her to get to you."

Her words sent chills up his spine. The thought of anyone harming his wife for any reason made his blood boil, but he had to be strong for her sake, and he couldn't risk losing his concentration because of fits of rage. Besides, he's managed to control himself against every foe he's ever come in contact with, and he wasn't about to stop now. Not that he was worried about it; he figured this would be one of those 'nip it in the bud before it gets out of hand situations'. So long as he found a solution for his wife's condition, he didn't care what he had to do. However, he hoped it would never go beyond that point, judging by Ezra's warning.

"I have to be going. It was really nice meeting you, and I'll be sure to contact you of anything I learn." He extended his hand to hers and gripped as he helped her stand.

She laughed, then coughed violently as she flicked her drag to the ground, "Oh, well then please send my regards to the Fire Lord. Tell him to expect a visit from me soon, as I'd like to speak to him about a few recent comments he made to you in regards to me. I believe his words were 'old bat', and 'going senile.'" She cheeked, which made the wrinkles around her mouth look even more prominent.

He never thought someone so old could be so...eccentric. He then scratched the thought from his mind as soon as he remembered his old friend Bumi, "Errr, Ok?" he couldn't resist chuckling. It looked like Zuko was in some serious trouble, but how could he argue with the lady? he asked for it, "So how do I get out of here?"

"The same way you came in." she snickered, "Sheer will."

He shrugged his shoulders, "Alright then." It seemed easy enough now that he knew how to do it, so he once again concentrated on getting back to the South Pole, then before the land began to ripple around him, he asked one more question.

"By the way, how do you know all of this, about the history of the Avatar in this world?"

She stood her ground, eyes hard as stone while she cupped her hands over her lap before her image meshed into darkness, "Because Avatar…I was there."

* * *

><p><strong><span>Author's Note<span>: I apologize for my typos and other writing errors that I'm sure are littered all over this story. I don't edit my work because I don't have time, and the little time I do have I use to write. I'd also like to take the time to ask for leniency in regards to my updates. I've had to juggle my sister-in-law's wedding, a baby shower and my son's birthday all in the span of a month. I have priorities that come first and although I do love to write, it's not one of them (although I would really like it if it were). My updates will not be as frequent as they were a year and a half ago, please bear with me. Thank you for your time.**


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